Flight attendant loses 2 teeth in assault by passenger

Kudos to the passenger who intervened!

Society is becoming increasingly populated with former "time out" children who have never been told 'no' in their delicate lives let alone told to respect authority/rules or taught proper conflict resolution. It's this way on the ground, why would it be any different at FL300?? It's only going to get worse as many "time out" children are now parents. Make sure you have dental insurance...

Federal Prison and some real jail time are the only answers here.

Pretty clear that air marshals are in short supply.

this attacker deserves being caged for a good long time, no excuses could possibly mitigate the assault on the flight attendant. There in jail, mental health services could be made available, as well as bus schedules for the rest of this felon's life.

What is wrong with people these days?

I flew SWA a couple of times last week (without my wife-beater shirt...LOL) and they are not even serving booze yet. They may want to hold off reintroducing it!

Personally if you can’t follow rules and assault flight attendant you show be banned from flying any airline ever again theses lowlifes need to know you mean business. So sad for front people ❤️🌹❤️🌹

Apart from these newsy incidents there's a lot of micro-misbehavior on flights, mostly booze boors. Alcohol should be capped, maybe one drink every two hours.

this is just another type of "road rage", only its someone in an airplane and thank the lord they are screened for weapons by tsa!!there are SOME reasons a person might turn violent suddenly,like having PTSD or being clausterphobic,but other than that,there are none..the woman deserves a lot of jail time and federal prosecution, as well as paying for the flight attendants medical bills!

New normal. Heart goes out to anybody on the front lines. Easier and more fun to treat people nice. Quick recovery to the Flight Attendant.

fine the individual a few were it hurts not just a few hundred dollars, have him pay for the flight attendance time of from work pay for the dental damage and ban the attacker from future flights not just from southwest

How many people here remember when people got dressed up to fly on an airline and totally behaved themselves and treated the flight crew with great respect and younger people were in awe of them?!

This is what happens when you raise a generation "graduating" from every grade, receiving trophies for participating, and never correcting antisocial behavior because you want to be their friend and not their parent.

Question, is this happening on the legacy carriers? Is SWA attracting the scumbags due to cheaper fares or what is the reason?
These offenders need to go directly to jail with hugh fines and permeate flying bands on ANY airline.. take the train or bus..

Another reason why I don't miss the " Friendly skies " of commercial flying now that I am officially retired, the best airborne experience is flying my J3 Cub with the doors off on a warm sunny day.

Aside from the horrendous way people are allowing themselves to behave, I find it equally as disturbing that out of an entire plane load of people, no one came to her aid as the incident escalated. Rather than being such low paid employees, cabin crews might warrant hazardous duty pay. It's a world gone mad.

Just wondering if anybody has the facts but is this primarily an American issue? Obviously not exclusively but this is getting ugly and is a sad comment on cultural maturity during these challenging times.

When does the FAA weigh in on this? A required crewmember was (arguably) incapacitated here.

Ban them for life on SWA and send them directly to jail for 90 days. They will lose their jobs and be felons for life......something they won't soon forget.......

Very common occurrence in a country where everybody is out of control.

This incident is a very sad commentary on the level of civility in our culture; violence is not a productive, or constructive, dispute resolution method.

Mutts like this have no respect for instructions given by police and were surprised they have no respect for flight attendants?

They should charge all of these people with a FELONY! Convict them and sentence to one year in jail and a fine that's appropriate.

and ban them from flying

I Googled "People Like avionik99" here's the results: These people are generally low self esteem individuals who have been failures at most everything in life. The internet gives them a platform to look at people they feel are more inferior to them, which in some strange way makes them feel less inferior. What I don't understand is why this person feels a need to bring his pathetic, bigoted views to an aviation website

Americans have become a very violent and confrontational race. It is mislabelled as assertiveness.

NAH, lock them all up before they get on the plane and turn them loose upon arrival. Treat 'em like the animals they are!

"Montgomery asked Kelly to lobby federal officials for more federal air marshals on flights and to ban passengers who violate rules instead of putting them on another flight." Yes to both.

Take all 169 members who commented on this post and put them on a flight together. What is the over/under that they get off the ground before a fight breaks out?

The answer is simple. Instead of the same old pre takeoff safety routine, state loud and clear if anyone does not follow instructions from the flight crew, they will be banned from ever flying again on any airline WORLDWIDE and fined $25,000 and sentenced to six months in jail.

Un Official airline of the Jerry Springer show.....

“The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday that airlines have reported 2,500 incidents of unruly passengers this year, including 1,900 cases in which passengers refused to wear face masks, which are required by federal rule.”

76% of incidents were related to face masks. Perhaps once people are required to behave in a certain manner that they don’t believe in, or think may harm them, they don’t feel the need to obey other rules.

It is a sad trend to see all of these violent acts accelerating over the past year and yet the answer to the problem is this, people are sick and tired of mandatory masks from the moment they set foot on airport property until they leave. It is enough that we give up our rights the moment we enter the airport and must go through ever lengthening lines of security to be subjected to warrantless searches on our bodies as well as our property and then herded into the waiting areas like sheep to be cajoled by masked employees treating the customers like so many sheep.

It is time to treat people with respect, treat them like the customers who fund their salaries and pay for the fuel, airport, and even the security protocols. It is imperative that the TSA end these requirements as per the mask for good and all. Masks were never intended to be worn for a lengthy period of time yet these archaic rules prevail in the flying industry. Oh yes, until the mask requirement is ended it is important for passengers/customers to show respect to the airport employees as well who have the duty to enforce these onerous regulations and it behooves the customer to bear in mind that the airport and airline employees are doing what they are required to do, ie, make certain everyone has a mask and is wearing the mask 'properly' though these employees should never have this requirement as part of their job description to enforce these archaic regulations

That is my suggestion as to how to end the problem of people becoming unhinged on aircraft.

I guess my question is why the passenger wasn't escorted off the airplane then and there? If I was on the ground and I heard about it...I would have taken care of it then and there instead of flying on.

Here we go again, people today: "I want my freedom. I don't want to be told what to do." Also, if you don't want to wear a mask, then don't fly. It's that easy. I hope the FA sues to customer.

Please don't feed the trolls.

No wonder fractional jet ownership is so popular today. No one wants to ride in the trash wagon.

Without reading the article, try and guess what political party the person supports.

No in-flight alcohol, instead airlines should just offer weed edibles, brownies, cookies. Or how about a complimentary bag of weed gummies instead of peanuts. Passengers would be nice and mellow throughout the flight, maybe a few giggles here and there and then they'd fall asleep. What a peaceful flight..

Raise all the air fares to the current equivalent of what they were in the 60s and 70s (before deregulation) and you'll eliminate most of this type of behavior. Of course the volume of those flying will decrease and the airlines won't make as much money, but you'll elevate the behavior of the flying public.

And ban flip-flops as well.

Sad that Americans have stooped so low

Why people continue to bring their unsubstantiated political bias onto an aviation website is is a mystery to me. Chuck Lavazzi seems to think "right wing media; ergo Trump" is culpable for the idiotic behavior of an airline passenger. Personally, the worst seat assignment on an airplane I could imagine, would be sitting next to someone that thinks Frank Zappa was prophetic about anything

So many passengers seem to think that they are flying on "WILDWEST". They seem to have more passenger problems than the other airlines. I remember when Southwest had two 727s and only flew the Dallas-Houston route. I think they are the best. I was a friend of their chief of training, Raul Cabeza who captained a flight from Havana to Miami and made Fidel Castro very unhappy. Raul had all of his family aboard his last flight for Cubana Airlines.

Take away the assailant's drivers license AND any form of gov't assistance they may be receiving i.e. Medicare, Medicaid, S.S.I, Veteran benefits, etc. for up to one year or permanently. Also, ban from ALL airline carriers.
If they lose their house or apartment, who cares! They can take their combative arse and join the homeless ranks.

I enjoyed the music 'Don't Cry For Me' by Donn Wilkerson & Lance Sumner
https://youtu.be/Kl-jX4K4pFE

this act is outrageous, and all the commenters who come up with their personal ideas about proper punishment could remember there exist statutes, rules, regulations on the books that if fully followed result in unpleasant and costly results for this offender. The FAA rule about interfering with a crew member and that penalty for example. Just don't water down the penalty, and that ought to be a signpost to future duplicators of this kind of action is costly and to be avoided.

Very Sad that people have no respect

I saw a more complete report on the TV "news" show Inside Edition With videos of the assault by a passenger and the guy who grabbed the wacked out assaulted. And had the video of the "coffee, tea, or me" attendant on the cart she was on the way to the hospital.

Ladies and gentlemen...please secure your seat belts and loose items around your seating area. We have a passenger who will be leaving our flight at flight level 280. It may be a bit windy in the cabin for a few minutes.
In the meantime... we'll be showing a movie: Gone With The Wind.

Riding ANY commercial flight is taking a big risk, both getting to the airport and taking the actual flight. Plus one is cramped up with smelly, sweaty, mouth breathing gold tooth types with any manner of previously unknown criminal backgrounds. Drive or ride first class if able. As for the wannabe pugilist, her teeth need to be extracted without the benefit of anesthesia.

We simply WONT FLY in such an environment. That pax was way outta line, but sometimes the FAs are too.

Video on the incident

https://fox5sandiego.com/news/local-news/video-shows-passenger-punching-flight-attendant-suspect-arrested/

First of all, it's interesting that this report generated more comments than the Belarus incident.

Second, the report does not reveal what exactly happened and none of the commentators were onboard.

So hold your horses before calling for an execution--"this attacker deserves being caged for a good long time"

No, she does not.

I used to fly weekly before I retired. Now as I see what is happening on way too many flights I hate to even fly on vacation. I think alcohol should be banned on all flights and any passenger approaching the gate showing any signs of impairment should be subjected to a breathalyzer test before being allowed to board the aircraft.

I’d hold the political comments. Just not useful here, but jail time, heavy fines and restitution sound like a great solution.

Can anyone touch on confirming how her actions violated the Contract of Carriage terms? Being an airline's passenger is not just a simple "pay and fly" behavior: carriage is a totally different realm, governed by a complex contract, agreements, and rules between passenger and carrier.

Any coincidence that all this misbehavior dramatically increased with the dumb mask mandate ? People are fed up with rude FAs, uncomfortable seats, no service, and now aggressive mask enforcement. I think it's making people snap. Nothing pleasant about airline travel any more. It's very sad that it's come to this

I don't in any way condone the physically violent acts of this passenger but it appears that she had reached the breaking point of abuse by airline employees and the whole process. I say 'appears' because I have no way of seeing the other side of the issue. No matter what was done to her she should never have struck the flight attendant. I think the passenger's actions should be treated as a felonious assault because she inflicted bodily injury upon the flight attendant however federal laws and penalties might be a bit too draconian as far as a penalty for her behavior.

Let's take a look at the root causes of this increase in aggressive behavior on the part of passengers. Requiring masks on airlines have depersonalized the employees as well as the passengers. With a mask on his/her face the flight attendant and the passengers have no way to pick up on visual cues from each other and there appears to be an escalation of violence as the result. I have seen many videos where passengers have been kicked off planes by what appears to be overbearing flight attendants because of a refusal to wear a mask or even the improper wearing of the mask.

The refusal to allow people to fly without a mask especially since it is more and more common knowledge that masks do nothing to stop the spread of any virus whatsoever. People in America are fed up with the mask requirement and are finally seeing a loosening of restrictions all over the country yet the airlines continue to require this device that makes breathing especially difficult.

Being confronted over wearing a silly face diaper is undignified. Passengers are not children and the sooner the airlines stop treating them like adolescents the better. A passenger comes onto airport property and must spend the day being told what to do and having every one of their actions scrutinized by airport employees and security. Passengers are sick and tired of the steady encroachment of their freedom and liberty and are unfortunately some are resisting with violence.

I applaud the passenger who intervened when he observed that the flight attendant was attacked and assaulted by the over wrought passenger. This man was a hero and should be commended for the actions he took to de-escalate the situation.

Watching the antics of passengers and employees of airlines I have resolved to never fly again unless absolutely necessary. Passengers are treated like animals from the moment they enter airport property, board the aero plane and exit at their final destination. Some of these trips require the expenditure of a very long time from beginning to end and is quite daunting.

I will henceforth drive to and from my destination and enjoy the trip however I foresee the government entering the realm of ground travel with the advance of the 'climate change' agenda on the horizon.

Eye for an Eye.....Knock her teeth out.... AND pay restitution AND jail

Media: SILENT

Flight attendants (and pilots) should be mandated to wear body cameras just like police officers...

I haven’t flown in one of those metal pressure tubes sine 2015 nor plan to any more. I used to enjoy flying and flew a lot but now I love driving and seeing my country from behind a steering wheel. It’s interesting how the mask, or burqa, has dehumanized travelers and airline employees.

Scab of a nation, driven insane

I haven't seen where anyone knows who started the altercation. Either the customer was born under a Walmart as some here like to colour her, or the flight attendant was showing her authority and laid hands on her. Was it self defense, or criminal assault?

The passenger needs to have 2 of her teeth knocked out.
Can I get an Amen?